Acer CEO says PC prices could fall by 2027, accuses rivals of milking the RAM shortage for profit

[Daniel Sims]

In brief: CEOs of major memory manufacturers have made varying predictions of how long ongoing shortages will last, with Acer offering the most optimistic assessment. Accusing other companies of overshooting estimates to influence profit margins, Acer's CEO thinks the worst could pass by the end of next year.

Acer CEO Jason Chen recently told DigiTimes that PC price hikes related to RAM shortages might begin to reverse by late 2027. The statement counters earlier claims from other memory manufacturer CEOs that the situation would continue until at least 2030.

Since last year, explosive demand from AI data center construction has swallowed up supply and quintupled DRAM prices, pushing hardware makers to raise prices across any device that leans on large RAM pools.

PCs, smartphones, graphics cards, and game consoles have all felt the hit, and the fallout has spilled over into demand for CPUs and motherboards too. One recent study found that today's memory market, on a per-unit basis, looks a lot like it did nearly two decades ago.

Estimates on how long the shortage and elevated pricing will last vary widely. Earlier this year, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra predicted the situation would continue beyond 2027. Not long after, SK Hynix CEO Kwak Noh-Jung said shortages would peak in 2027 and supply would stay tight through 2030.

Adata chairman Chen Li-bai went further still, forecasting elevated prices for another decade – despite expansion plans from every major memory manufacturer.

Also read: AI Is Eating All the DRAM

Acer's CEO sees it differently. Chen argues those predictions are less about supply realities and more about prolonging the fat profit margins the AI boom has handed memory makers. He claims supply of most RAM and SSD types has already caught up with demand, and that today's shortages are limited to high-end parts – the fastest DDR5 modules and CPUs like Nvidia's N1X among them.

Chen still expects PC prices to rise 5% to 20% later this year, with a peak in the first half of 2027 before prices finally start easing. New, cheaper supply from Chinese manufacturers like CXMT is a big part of that math, and recent reports suggest Apple is weighing CXMT as a supplier to ease its own cost pressure, even with the company still sitting on the Pentagon's blacklist.

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Acer CEO says PC prices could fall by 2027, accuses rivals of milking the RAM shortage for profit

 

[James321]

Who would have thought GREED has everything to do with it.

 

[J95qRP7]

Even if it does start to reverse, it will take, I think, upwards of 18-36 months to even start to come back down, because of the long term contracts the memory menufacturers have signed with hyperscalers.

And let's be honest, just like Acer has said here, when prices do decrease, if the company gets a 20% reduction in DRAM or NAND costs, I doubt consumers would get half the savings passed on. The companies will just us it to pad their bottom line even more.

 

[Taroo]

Maybe he's the only one being honest about it.
It's time for regulators to look further into what might be a sneaky agreement between the manufacturers.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

They saying the same thing differently:

Prices will peak mid 2027 and then start to fall, but still be “elevated” from the cheap prices of 2025 for a couple years while continuing to fall back to that level.

The difference is sloppy/clickbait journalism, not the predicted trend.

 

[yRaz]

They saying the same thing differently:

Prices will peak mid 2027 and then start to fall, but still be “elevated” from the cheap prices of 2025 for a couple years while continuing to fall back to that level.

The difference is sloppy/clickbait journalism, not the predicted trend.

Well it looks like AI hardware demand has already peaked. Oracle is failing, openAI had leaked documents revealing 90% losses last quarter, nVidia and AMD are lobbying to sell their AI hardware to China and the memory companies are trying to lock in price minimums. Further, Q1 of fiscal year 2027 is when these AI companies are going to have to start paying back their debts.

The memory companies are trying to lock in higher memory prices but there was a wildcard they didn't predict which is CMXT and YMNC. They can lock in their rates all they want but that's based on demand numbers in the current market where people aren't paying $600 for 32GB of ram. The big three are going to have to compete with cheap Chinese memory as OEMs try to fill in the gaps in their supply chain.

So while we in the US might be forced to pay stupid high prices because China bad, nothing is stopping these companies from using cheap Chinese memory in other markets

 

[The Talking Tech]

RAM prices will only fall in 2027 if Democrats win the House and Senate in November 3rd as they will force an A.I regulation on Data Centers causing their demands to fall.

If you want to keep paying for overpriced technology and PC components I guess you can always choose the Republicans to keep destroying the economy.

 

[BumFarto]

I know it’s been endlessly predicted but I think the ai crash is near and you can see it in the nervous “giggles” from the ai tech bros, the precarious sales/loan systems companies like nvidia and amd are using to prop up demand and investment capital running out or refusing to pour anymore money in.

That will cause prices to drop. Of course, it will also be a calamity for the economy of the US at large but at least we’ll have cheap memory, nand, and GPUs again!

 

[Loadedaxe]

RAM prices will only fall in 2027 if Democrats win the House and Senate in November 3rd as they will force an A.I regulation on Data Centers causing their demands to fall.

If you want to keep paying for overpriced technology and PC components I guess you can always choose the Republicans to keep destroying the economy.

I think we just managed to turn DRAM pricing into a campaign commercial.

The article doesn't say RAM prices will fall because Washington regulates AI. Acer's CEO says prices could start easing in late 2027 because supply catches up with demand, with additional cheaper memory from companies such as CXMT playing a role. Meanwhile, TrendForce is actually forecasting AI memory demand to remain strong through 2027 and DRAM supply to stay tight.

And winning the House and Senate on November 3 wouldn't cause some giant AI regulation switch to flip the next morning. The new Congress wouldn't even take office until January 3, and legislation still has to pass both chambers and go through the President.

RAM prices are being driven by global semiconductor capacity, HBM and server demand, fab allocation, production expansion, and consumer demand. Samsung and SK Hynix are Korean, Micron is American, and CXMT is Chinese. Apparently all of them forgot to check which American political party won Congress before setting wafer capacity.

You can dislike Republicans. You can dislike Democrats. That's politics.

But RAM does not check voter registration before deciding what a DDR5 DIMM costs.

 

[The Talking Tech]

I think we just managed to turn DRAM pricing into a campaign commercial.

The article doesn't say RAM prices will fall because Washington regulates AI. Acer's CEO says prices could start easing in late 2027 because supply catches up with demand, with additional cheaper memory from companies such as CXMT playing a role. Meanwhile, TrendForce is actually forecasting AI memory demand to remain strong through 2027 and DRAM supply to stay tight.

And winning the House and Senate on November 3 wouldn't cause some giant AI regulation switch to flip the next morning. The new Congress wouldn't even take office until January 3, and legislation still has to pass both chambers and go through the President.

RAM prices are being driven by global semiconductor capacity, HBM and server demand, fab allocation, production expansion, and consumer demand. Samsung and SK Hynix are Korean, Micron is American, and CXMT is Chinese. Apparently all of them forgot to check which American political party won Congress before setting wafer capacity.

You can dislike Republicans. You can dislike Democrats. That's politics.

But RAM does not check voter registration before deciding what a DDR5 DIMM costs.

If you think regulating A.I won't face a favorable outcome in RAM pricing for consumers then you missed the point on what made RAM prices to go up in the first place.

 

[Win7user]

Yep, simple everyday greed...

 

[Loadedaxe]

If you think regulating A.I won't face a favorable outcome in RAM pricing for consumers then you missed the point on what made RAM prices to go up in the first place.

Nobody missed that point. AI demand absolutely helped drive RAM prices up.

What you apparently missed is that wasn't your original argument.

Your argument was...

Democrats win Congress - regulate AI - data-center demand drops - RAM gets cheaper.

That's a political prediction dressed up as semiconductor economics.

RAM prices aren't controlled by one demand lever. They're affected by fab capacity, HBM consuming wafer capacity, server DRAM demand, production lead times, long term contracts, new fabs coming online, consumer demand and additional supply from companies like CXMT.

In fact, TrendForce currently expects AI demand to remain strong in 2027 and DRAM supply to remain tight, while Acer is talking about prices easing as more supply comes online.

So yes, AI helped cause the shortage.

No, that doesn't magically prove "vote Democrat and your DDR5 gets cheaper."

That's not how economics works. That's how campaign bumper stickers work.

 

[The Talking Tech]

Nobody missed that point. AI demand absolutely helped drive RAM prices up.

What you apparently missed is that wasn't your original argument.

Your argument was...

Democrats win Congress - regulate AI - data-center demand drops - RAM gets cheaper.

That's a political prediction dressed up as semiconductor economics.

RAM prices aren't controlled by one demand lever. They're affected by fab capacity, HBM consuming wafer capacity, server DRAM demand, production lead times, long term contracts, new fabs coming online, consumer demand and additional supply from companies like CXMT.

In fact, TrendForce currently expects AI demand to remain strong in 2027 and DRAM supply to remain tight, while Acer is talking about prices easing as more supply comes online.

So yes, AI helped cause the shortage.

No, that doesn't magically prove "vote Democrat and your DDR5 gets cheaper."

That's not how economics works. That's how campaign bumper stickers work.

And my point still the same....

Since Republicans are incapable of regulating A.I and its data centers keeping ram prices way up, our only hope is for the Democrats this November to take control as it's universally known as they are the only political party that want to regulate it in turn slowly normalizing demand and with it technology pricing.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Well it looks like AI hardware demand has already peaked. Oracle is failing, openAI had leaked documents revealing 90% losses last quarter, nVidia and AMD are lobbying to sell their AI hardware to China and the memory companies are trying to lock in price minimums. Further, Q1 of fiscal year 2027 is when these AI companies are going to have to start paying back their debts.

The memory companies are trying to lock in higher memory prices but there was a wildcard they didn't predict which is CMXT and YMNC. They can lock in their rates all they want but that's based on demand numbers in the current market where people aren't paying $600 for 32GB of ram. The big three are going to have to compete with cheap Chinese memory as OEMs try to fill in the gaps in their supply chain.

So while we in the US might be forced to pay stupid high prices because China bad, nothing is stopping these companies from using cheap Chinese memory in other markets

One additional lever driving the high prices is the rapid buildout. AI companies paid stupid prices to purchase components now rather than wait because 1) first to the top wins attitude and 2) the interconnected deals had short deadlines because 1.

So, the masses slowing/halting data center builds directly counteracts that pressure. No need to overpay for RAM that you can't use for two years and will miss the contract deadline bonus. Thus, the protests could hasten price reductions by slowing demand.

 

[yRaz]

One additional lever driving the high prices is the rapid buildout. AI companies paid stupid prices to purchase components now rather than wait because 1) first to the top wins attitude and 2) the interconnected deals had short deadlines because 1.

So, the masses slowing/halting data center builds directly counteracts that pressure. No need to overpay for RAM that you can't use for two years and will miss the contract deadline bonus. Thus, the protests could hasten price reductions by slowing demand.

Well they were able to pay those stupid prices because of the $100B chips act and 5-7 years of not paying property taxes on the new construction. They're using our money to outbid us and make everything more expensive. That's basically the entire useful life of the Datacenter so they'll abandon it and someone will buy it up and turn it into a warehouse to store products for Walmart or Amazon

 

[airbornex]

Every memory CEO has a different prediction depending on which year makes their company look best. Truly the astrology of the semiconductor industry.

 

[Greggs]

And my point still the same....

Since Republicans are incapable of regulating A.I and its data centers keeping ram prices way up, our only hope is for the Democrats this November to take control as it's universally known as they are the only political party that want to regulate it in turn slowly normalizing demand and with it technology pricing.

Suggesting voting for Democrats is the only way to correct an imbalanced market demonstrates the author, Talking Tech, lacks any understanding of market economics.

 

[Loadedaxe]

And my point still the same....

Since Republicans are incapable of regulating A.I and its data centers keeping ram prices way up, our only hope is for the Democrats this November to take control as it's universally known as they are the only political party that want to regulate it in turn slowly normalizing demand and with it technology pricing.

Ah yes, we have now reached the “universally known” portion of the economic presentation, traditionally located somewhere between evidence and divine revelation.

You can certainly argue that Democrats generally favor more restrictive AI regulation. That's a perfectly legitimate political argument.

But “Democrats are the only party that wants to regulate data centers” has the minor inconvenience of being demonstrably false. You should do some research.

The bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act was introduced by Democrat Kathy Castor and Republican Gabe Evans, it addresses data center electricity costs, and just passed the House 417–3! Republicans have also supported legislation dealing with AI security and measuring data center energy consumption. Again, research!

Meanwhile, Acer's CEO didn't say, “Good news everyone, elect Democrats and DIMMs become affordable.”

He specifically pointed toward supply catching up and cheaper Chinese memory from CXMT as reasons pricing could ease in late 2027.

Could regulations eventually reduce some data-center demand? Certainly.

Could stricter Democratic proposals reduce it more than Republican policy would? Possibly. But above stats prove it won't matter, as they already do!

But you've somehow transformed “AI caused enormous memory demand” into ... wait for it...

Election - Democrats - regulation - less AI - cheap RAM.

There are a few hundred billion dollars of fabs, HBM allocation, contracts, capacity expansions, Chinese competition and global demand sitting inconveniently between those arrows.

But please, continue. I'm fascinated to learn whether DDR6 will require a voter ID.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Well they were able to pay those stupid prices because of the $100B chips act and 5-7 years of not paying property taxes on the new construction. They're using our money to outbid us and make everything more expensive. That's basically the entire useful life of the Datacenter so they'll abandon it and someone will buy it up and turn it into a warehouse to store products for Walmart or Amazon

The best ROI in business is money spent on lobbying!

But I doubt they abandon the sites after all the work to get power to them. More likely they negotiate a minimal tax moving forward (in exchange for the 10 jobs they brought to the region).

 

[yRaz]

The best ROI in business is money spent on lobbying!

But I doubt they abandon the sites after all the work to get power to them. More likely they negotiate a minimal tax moving forward (in exchange for the 10 jobs they brought to the region).

I've done some renovations on similar products and that stuff often goes to recycling centers and if they can't do that, the guys usually buy it from the company for scrap metal prices. The interesting thing about a lot of this equipment is that once it is used it cannot be insured. When working on these facilities insurance is the big problem, even moving them requires insurance and a line of paperwork. so it is often cheaper and easier for some guy to throw it on it trailer and the liability ends the moment it is on the other persons trailer.

There are guys I work with who run refurbishing businesses and they can give them a certificate saying "this has a 3 year warranty on it" and then smaller businesses can take that to their insurance and install stuff there. I see this most often with large back up diesel or natural gas generators but it also happens with some of the larger HVAC equipment. Lots of these cooling things go on to returaunts and the generators often goto automotive work shops or CNC shops.

It's also not uncommon for people to dismantle them and sell them as "used good" parts.

The most disappointing thing about them is that there is usually absolutely nothing wrong with any of the equipment other than the insurance company says no.

No, I haven't seen any of these large scale datacenters dump their equipment yet, but there are people who are worried about it because these are big units and the datacenters use LOTS of them. Lots of generators and lots of cooling towers. Most places usually only have 1 or 2 units and datacenters can have 30 or 40 of each one. The large scale transformers will get bought up electric companies and I really don't know what they do with them after that. I've heard that they either goto small towns that need an upgrade or get used as cheap alternatives for shopping centers and strip malls, but they're also typically property of the local electric company and we're legally not allowed to touch them.

We refer to them as "on the road" but they can be under or in the building, but we have a saying. Everything from the road to the meter is owned by the electric company and everything "from the meter" is our responsibility. I don't have any insight on how some of these new buildings we entire separate grids work. I've been doing this stuff since 2004 and this is completely new territory. I would usually hear from other crew leads what's going on but there are so many NDAs on these jobs that I'm not joking when we often aren't even allowed to talk to each other and have fences around designated work areas. If you need something outside your work area you have to radio to someone and they'll go grab you what you need. Some are even so extreme that they take our phones and car keys, bus us to the job in windowless vans and then order us lunch. We aren't allowed to have phones or even bring our own lunches.

 

[p51d007]

Gee thanks CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!

 

[user556]

The only greed is the AI race. AI is the whole problem here. Only when the AI bubble bursts will the prices drop back.
Hell, even CXMT is being forced to charge even higher prices than all others simply because of that AI demand.

 

[scoffer]

Milking the RAM shortage? Surely not! I'm sure most relevant CEOs would vehemently dispute this scandalous diatribe.
Jesus........do you realize how expensive mega -yachts are to buy and run nowadays?!

 

[scoffer]

The only greed is the AI race. AI is the whole problem here. Only when the AI bubble bursts will the prices drop back.
Hell, even CXMT is being forced to charge even higher prices than all others simply because of that AI demand.

Gotta laugh at the "forced to charge even higher prices....."

 

[Rudyduu]

If you think regulating A.I won't face a favorable outcome in RAM pricing for consumers then you missed the point on what made RAM prices to go up in the first place.

It's as if you didn't read what the other person had to say, but let me help you, they said it wouldn't suddenly happen if Democrats won the majority. Writing bills and getting them through the government takes time, it's not immediate. The Democrats, if they win, will have a lot of other things to concentrate on and RAM prices probably won't be at the top of their list.